What Is RescueTime?

RescueTime is a time management &amp; Productivity software firm founded in 2008. The RescueTime program runs in the background of your devices measuring, tracking and automatically categorizing your own activity.

RescueTime is a free program with a premium upgrade That enables attributes and more reporting like offline moment inputsignal. It delivers a reporting dashboard with your information diced, sliced and sorted into graphs that are helpful that will assist you manage your own time.

The program relies on Peter Drucker’s (the famous Management consultant) maxim that”what gets measured, gets managed.”

RescueTime requires time’s manual tracking So you actually track your time so that and makes it automatic and painless .

That said, there are dozens and dozens of Productivity &amp; time management programs online. What are the pros &amp; cons of RescueTime? Here is what I have noticed through the years.

Disclosure — I receive referral fees Mentioned on this site. Any data and/or opinions are all based on my expertise as consultant to a paying customer or a paying client. Tracks In Time

Rescuing Your Period

To reiterate, RescumeTime is a productivity tool in the Sense that it helps you improve your time-management skills. It gathers data about the apps and websites you use, then generates reports based on that info.

To get started, you install a and create an account Desktop program in your computer(s) and optionally a mobile app on Android apparatus ) There is no iOS program because the operating system prevents RescueTime from collecting the data it needs to perform its purpose. Those apps quietly and invisibly track which programs you use and which sites you visit, in addition to the amount of time you spend on these.

The hard nut to crack is the Way to make sense of all that information. To get the best results, you must customize your accounts from the RescueTime site and tell the program more about what you consider productive versus unproductive action. The more you fine-tune it to your particular conditions, the better your results. For instance, somebody who operates in the financing industry may classify reading financial news on sites including MarketWatch and FT.com as a productivity job, whereas for me, that is an unproductive use of time.

You can categorize every program and website on a 5-point Scale of very productive, productive, impartial, dependable, and very unproductive. You can also categorize action into perform categorizes. By way of example, I record Google Docs as very productive, and I categorized it as Writing, which will be a subcategory of Layout and Composition. Looking at Redfin.com is very distracting when I’m trying to function, and I’ve categorized it as such.

In the desktop program, there is a simple set of controllers That allows you to pause RescueTime for 15 minutes, 1 hour, or till tomorrow, providing you easy access to shifting the program off for days or breaks once you wrap up early.

Privacy

When faced with RescueTime’s proposal –We’ll track Everything you do and provide you insights about your habits! –some individuals may, justifiably, be worried about their privacy and the security of information in their hardware. If you work with sensitive information online or keep sensitive information on your own computers and mobile devices, you are going to want to read RescueTime’s privacy and security statements closely.

For everybody else, RescueTime’s privacy policy Contains a summary at the top, only a few condensed lines that are worth reading.

If your worries are somewhat more relaxed and You Just Don’t Want RescueTime tracking you on the weekend, you have control over the times and days the program monitors your behaviour. It is simple to set it to only watch your action from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, or whatever schedule suits you.

Reports

I’ve used RescueTime for decades, and I don’t check my Daily, productivity reports. I love to let the service run in the background so that when I do want to find a better picture of how I have been spending my own time, a good quantity of information is awaiting me.

When I do go through the reports, however, they’re Magnificent. I really like the variety, giving you get numerous methods of understanding your productivity and customs, from bar graphs and pie charts that show lump amounts of action, to line things of software you used.

1 simple but powerful piece of information RescueTime Provides is an analysis of when during the day you are inclined to be the most successful. I was not surprised to observe that my brain peaks in the morning and slacks off after 2:00 p.m., as that fits fairly well with what I understand about my customs. If you have never studied your productivity, nevertheless, that might be a beneficial revelation for you, one that may help you schedule your times more productively.

The more time you use RescueTime Premium, the more useful the Data becomesbecause you may see your statistics by day, week, month, or year. And as you might expect, you can toggle which days and times RescueTime records your activity so that it works automatically on weekends, for instance. Tracks In Time

Additional Capabilities

Much of the value you get from RescueTime comes in that which You make of the information and how you use that data to affect your behavior. Changing behavior is tough, but getting rich insights doesn’t have to be.

One of those ways RescueTime makes it Simple to understand how To interpret all of the information it collects is using a Productivity Pulse score. This daily score, shown as a percent, comes in calculating the percentage of time spent very productive, productive, impartial, unproductive, and incredibly wasteful jobs. To be clear, no one is advocating you target to get a 100 percent Productivity Pulse score.

A RescueTime blog article explaining the productivity Score notes that the typical score is 67 percent, and the average is 79 percent. The majority of people want to do some work which isn’t considered”very productive” throughout their day. The whole purpose of using RescueTime is to help you work out how to focus on productive and incredibly productive tasks if you will need to and possibly save less productive activities for times when your ability to focus has been waning anyway.

Jobs are not exactly the Exact Same thing as distractions. RescueTime has a smart and simple attribute for curbing behaviour that is unwanted, like getting sucked into websites that are deflecting . A feature called FocusTime, when enabled, blocks your ability to access. It takes a little setup and customization, but it’s quite effective, after it’s ready to set up. For example, let us say you want to finish a report, and to make progress on it, you need to focus hardcore for the next 30 minutes. Switch on FocusTime, and it may prevent you from taking a look posting on Twitter, checking sports scores, or whatever other websites and actions you deem deflecting.

The RescueTime mobile app has a setting which will Automatically silence your phone whenever you empower FocusTime. Likewise, you may set up other automation with the support of third-party services IFTTTFree at iTunes Store and Zapier to block or silence other distractions. By way of instance, you can make a rule using IFTTT (it stands for”if this, then that”) that states,”When I empower FocusTime, then automatically set my Slack status to busy.”

RescueTime also gives you the option Idle time. Any time RescueTime notices the computer has been idle for several minutes at a row, it pops up a dialogue asking if you were at a meeting, on the phone, taking break, and so on, and lets you classify the idle time accordingly.

Pros of RescueTime

Here is a Number of the advantages of utilizing RescueTime Over other solutions. Tracks In Time

Feature Set

At its core, RescueTime does something — monitor time. It’s not super unique if you look at it like this. Technically, you could do this with a spreadsheet or some of those dozens of apps online.

However, RescueTime’s feature set The way that it tracks time and what it does with the data (aka, you you’ll actually use).

RescueTime watches which windows currently have Action, looks at instances, and the window title the activity in that window. It’s constantly running in the background always watching.

Unobtrustive, automatic monitoring that is 100% makes RescueTime rewarding. There is not any friction or hurdle to monitoring time.

Since RescueTime’s tracking feature simplifies that Problem, you’ll have data that is complete, useful & appropriate.

RescueTime’s other features focus on making their Core attribute better. Like time-tracking &amp; billing for 15, they don’t attempt to include on characteristics that are complementary. They don’t attempt to get into any side businesses.

They do have a few features that use the tracking Attribute in an intriguing manner. The Get Focused! When chosen from running feature blocks deflecting sites and/or apps.

They have alerts and aims that Permit You to decide What when X occurs, you want to happen — and RescueTime can do this based on what it’s monitoring.

I love how RescueTime does Offline Time Tracking. Rather than having to search and add it in 100% manually, then you select a time interval that’s unlogged and fill in the blank.

You can customize the buttons to create logging Offline time simple and quick.

It is a minimalist feature set — but that Making it great. It is well-done, simple and simple.

Pricing and Strategies

RescueTime provides two tiers of support: Lite (free) and Premium ($9 a month or $72 per year). Organizations or Firms that are looking to utilize RescueTime across a bunch of individuals pay the same rate.

RescueTime Lite offers Monitored his or her period. The app monitors which websites and programs you use, and how much time spent on or in every one of them. You may categorize each program and website you are using on a Productive/Unproductive scale, and RescueTime generates a few basic reports demonstrating how you spend your own time. Lite members can set weekly objectives, such as”spend hours per week on productive jobs and fewer than Y moments on faulty products.” You can find a weekly report email. For reports, you’re confined to some three-month history, nevertheless.

Paying subscribers get everything from the free Lite program, Plus reports and extra features, such as an infinite history. Premium comes with alarms you can empower for when you hit goals. You can more correctly log time spent away from the computer, noting whether you’re in a meeting, on a telephone call, or simply out to lunch. There is a Get Focused alternative, which permits you to block distracting websites for a time period you place. Tracks In Time

Comparing RescueTime’s cost to that of other programs Needs an open mind as few programs do precisely what RescueTime does. Qbserve is one and it costs a level one-time fee of $40.

We could look at traditional time-tracking Programs for freelancers who typically include tools for generating bills. HarvestFree at Harvest is a decent example. At $12 per person per month for Premium, it costs over RescueTime, but it’s a clear return on investment since it helps ensure more accurate billing. How you will translate RescueTime’s reports and make better use of your time as a result is not as clear.

Another traditional time-tracking app that’s, toggl Popular among salespeople, prices $9 per month, and it also provides you tools for tracking time spent on projects with charging clients’ end goal. It has integration options for connecting with invoicing services, although toggl doesn’t include its own invoicing tools.

A few programs are nearer to RescueTime in what they have to Offer, such as Slife, even though they have a tendency to have fewer features even if they are free (and Slife is).

Either way — RescueTime is a no-brainer pricing-wise. It’s free to use.

And if the features save you just One hour each month then it is paid for itself even if you are simply earning US minimum wage.

RescueTime is.

App Quality

A problem with monitoring apps of all kinds is That they have to be on. The”always on” attribute can cause performance problems on notebooks &amp; desktop computers. Battery issues can be caused by it on mobile devices.

But in my experience, RescueTime induces neither. It’s running from startup in my Macbook Pro, my Windows PC, along with my Nexus 5x mobile phone. I’ve never monitored any battery life or performance issues to the app.

It is well-built and lightweight.

I like the fact that the mobile app does not demand Dozens of permissions. It requires access but doesn’t try to monitor location, emails, contacts, or some of the privacy that is typical violating other programs that are permissions ask for.

It’s quick to set up and syncs with an online dashboard. It crunches the information quickly if you are on the Premium plan or from next day to the plan that is free, and pulls at precisely the period.

Reporting

What is the point of information if you can’t interpret it Or place it to use? Tracks In Time

RescueTime’s reports solves this issue — and in Many ways is the entire purpose of using the app above a spreadsheet.

RescueTime’s Dashboard uses colorful bar and Pie graphs to reveal exactly what you are (and are not) doing.

You can Choose to receive emails reports Daily, Week or even month.

And on Top of That, you can dig into the Reporting with various filters and overlays to find your habits out.

It’s really eye-opening to determine the amount of Time that each task happens.

When I trying to find a marketing agency in Atlanta — The time monitored to Gchats and Instant Messages was astonishing. It altered processes not only for me personally, but also my job supervisors.

Now that I’m on my own with no fulltime workers — I can see the time I devote to tasks that matter. I am able to construct around those.

And Simply to reiterate Built-in to the software. The Dashboard is really on my default — and reports are pre-built.

It’s all seamless quick and effective so that you When analyzing your time, are wasting time.

Integrations

One of the selling points of RescueTime is their feature set minimalism. They do one thing and they do it well.

That said all people using their product Have software requirements that are time-based. When it’s billing, project management, team time tracking or something else — your time demands usually don’t stop with measuring tracking and categorization.

To solve that Issue, RescueTime’s software Integrates with a range. They’ve direct integrations and an API with applications.

Whether you are Time monitoring into even a job manager that must collate staff member’s time or invoicing software like FreshBooks, RescueTime will likely integrate with it.

Disadvantages of RescueTime

Like any applications RescueTime is Nor can it be the best fit for everyone. Here is some pitfalls that I’ve noticed through the years. Tracks In Time

Effectiveness vs. Efficiency

If you do the wrong thing for 18 hours per day, Every day with ideal focus — you are still doing the thing that is wrong.

The most important Element in time direction is to Work on the things — the 20% of time input which will generate 80 percent of your results.

And that’s a element that is 100% on you personally. RescueTime Can’t solve that problem.

In fact, in some ways, RescueTime can damage your Efforts by pushing you towards doing over strategy, research and planning.

If efficacy is your core issue, then RescueTime isn’t for you. It’ll only make matters worse.

I’d recommend reading a few of these books.

Conclusion

RescueTime continues to be an invaluable tool for me. It is not for everyone and has pitfalls and some feature quirks.

Nevertheless, the thing it’s provided is perspective. It’s easy to think that you just”work a ton” or are”not addicted to a telephone” or”invest so much time composing” or are”hardly ever on Facebook.”

But the information does not lie. And utilizing RescueTime to Get accurate time data on your digital time can help you rescue your own time and place your own life in perspective. Tracks In Time